Throughout history in many world cultures a mystical relationship to honeybees can be found. In the Ancient world the Great Mother was known as the Queen Bee and her priestesses were called Melissae.

They served the Bee Goddesses and functioned as Oracles carrying the golden wisdom of the Goddess to her people.

The Druids of Northern Europe reverenced the bees for their ability to pollinate flowers and crops, which was regarded as a sacred charge because honey was seen as a precious gift from the Mother Goddess herself.

Many Native American Indian tribes also used honey and other bee by-products, including the early Maya and Aztec Indians who kept bees and collected honey from the wild bees.

However the bee population of North America and Europe is now in serious decline, which threatens disaster to our food crops as they are dependent upon the bees to pollinate them. The increase of commercial agriculture with its use of pesticides and destruction of wild plants and flowers upon which the bees forage upon contributed to this problem.

Introducing Permaculture -

Permaculture, based on ecological and biological principles, is a holistic approach to designing agricultural systems modeled on relationships found in natural ecologies, harmoniously integrating the land with all of its inhabitants. Bill Mollison launched with his book Permaculture One (1978) an international resurgence of land-use structured on this cooperation with nature.
( http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/mollison.html )
For more information on Permaculture please follow these links;
( http://www.permaculture.org.uk/ ) ( http://www.permacultureusa.org/ )